University of Brighton student Ruby Jackson has created the Melanatal app to tackle a general lack of understanding about how some conditions present in people who are not white. It will offer patients and clinicians visual guides to the signs and symptoms of conditions including jaundice, pre-eclampsia and mastitis.

The NICU at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been identified as an outstanding outlier for two measures in the National Neonatal Audit Programme, having achieved a 100% follow-up rate for all 25 eligible babies in 2023.

The brand new £32 million neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham has welcomed its first 18 babies, following the facility’s opening on 10 December. Supported by the trust’s charity, it has been designed to offer a homely environment for families.

Ann Remmers started her career at Bristol's Southmead Hospital. Her contributions to maternal and neonatal care were described by health leaders as creating a “thriving legacy.” She has been honoured with the Chief Midwifery Officer Gold Award, which recognises those with a distinguished career who have been a role model to others.

To mark World Prematurity Day, Vygon UK raised funds for Swindon charity Tiny But Mighty, which offers support to parents and neonatal units across the South and South West.

Premature baby charity The Smallest Things is calling on the Health Secretary to make urgent changes to support the mental health needs of parents after the trauma of neonatal intensive care.

Children’s charity Rainbow Trust has welcomed the House of Lords preterm birth report. The Preterm Birth Committee was appointed at the start of the year to consider the prevention and consequences of preterm birth. The resulting report recommends a greater focus on research to understand what causes preterm birth, along with increased funding, to develop more effective interventions.

The findings of a survey by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of nearly 19,000 people who used NHS maternity services in 2024 shows some areas of improvement over the past year, particularly regarding access to mental health support. However, there remain other aspects of maternity care where people report a poorer experience and where analysis indicates a longer term decline in positive feedback over time.

The Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) pilot was launched on 7 October 2024 across nine maternity units at NHS trusts and aims to improve maternity outcomes for women and babies.

Sands is introducing a National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) in Northern Ireland, which aims to ensure parents who have experienced the loss of a baby have opportunities to make memories with their baby, and are supported with dignity and respect.

Tommy’s, the pregnancy and child birth charity, has responded to figures that show the rate of stillbirth in England and Wales was unchanged overall in 2023 compared with the previous year.

As World Prematurity Day on 17 November raises awareness of the hurdles faced by the 15 million babies born prematurely each year – one million of whom do not survive – medical manufacturer Vygon is sharing the life-saving impact of its thermoregulation technology.